Picking up where I left off last week, I want to explore what we know about the “objective” process by which an “independent” think tank like the Fraser Institute goes about choosing a topic to write a research paper about. As economists, they will doubtless nod in approval when I
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Emily Dee takes a first look at what may be a highly important story about the Cons’ use of the notorious right-wing push-poller Responsive Media Group: I had been conducting some research into the last federal election campaign, which was probably the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Who Funds the Right-Wing Think Tanks in Canada
Earlier this week, David Climenhaga seized on the ludicrously suggestive “freedom of information” campaign being waged by conservative forces in this country (CBC and unions should have to open their books for public inspection; corporations and the rest of government, not so much) to advance an even more radical solution:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Russell wonders what happened to the concept of the public good: Our political language about taxes has changed. Gone is “ability to pay.” The new catchphrases are “user pay” and “pay as you go.” The bottom-line message to citizens is “if
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: It’s not just unions any more: Time to consider fiscal openness for professional associations, private companies, think tanks, churches
The board of the Fraser Institute meets to discuss their next dubious call for lower taxes on billionaires and the corporations they own. Who finances them, anyway? Secretive organizations may not appear exactly as illustrated. It’s not just unions any more. The more I think about this, the more the
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Modern charity
CHARITY:
generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless.
The Fraser Institute styles itself the most influential market research organization in Canada. It is certainly the best funded and, in my view, one of the most politically activ…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Does Postmedia need paywalls or headstones
In his NY Times blog, economist Paul Krugman focused attention on one of the frequently repugnant think-tanks that serves America’s one-percenters. In Denial In Depth, Krugman applauds Ryan Chittum at the Columbia Journalism Review for:
“… a takedown…
DeSmogBlog: Why Ethical Oil’s Deceptive ‘Women’s Rights’ Defense of Tar Sands is Insulting and Wrong
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EthicalOil.org’s new spokesperson, Kathryn Marshall, authored an insulting piece this week on the Huffington Post titled "Care About Women's Rights? Support Eth…
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Never mind unions – let’s cast a little light on the darkest corporate corners!
Time to cast a little light in capitalism’s darkest corners? Below: Jim Stanford, Russ Hiebert.All the usual suspects clamouring for unions to be required by law to publicly reveal their financial accounts ought to be careful what they wish for. They…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Canadian Corporation Behind Efforts to Shut Down Occupy Wall Street Has Ties to Big Oil
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Occupy Wall Street is about challenging the power of the richest 1%. But what happens when that 1% owns the land of the occupation? It has been revealed that a Canadian company was behind…
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Three lessons that can’t be drawn from Alison Redford’s election – but will be anyway
Alison Redford shouts to make herself heard over the din Sunday morning after news of her victory had been announced. She can now expect people to simmer down and listen carefully whenever she speaks. Below: the media myth-making machine machinating. T…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Liberal scorn for sustainability
Before joining the Vancouver Sun, Fazil Mihlar was Senior Policy Analyst at The Fraser Institute. In his years with the newspaper’s editorial board, Mihlar has continued to serve philosophical goals of the reactionary foundations that finance his for…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Next we sell off naming rights for schools
Private business promoters aim to eliminate public enterprises through privatization, contracting out and outsourcing. They promote the myth that delivery of services by private, often multinational, companies gains cost and service efficiencies. …
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Non-thinking tank
During the lead-up to the HST referendum, business advocate Fraser Institute complained,
“…opponents of the harmonized tax have filled newspapers, broadcast media, and the blogosphere with inaccurate – and often outrageous – claims about the tax …
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- For those with a few months to kill between now and next March, now may be the time to direct a browser tab toward Alice’s NDP leadership site and start hitting “refresh”.- The Conference Board of Cana…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Falcon: Revenue neutral HST an "urban legend"
When the referendum delivered an unwanted result, BC’s provincial government reshaped, polished and coordinated messages to the public. One particularly troublesome claim, made by Finance Minister Colin Hansen during the July 2009 HST annou…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Labour Day – Canadian heritage moment – Rerun
First published here in 2009
I was flipping the radio dial on Labour Day and noticed that CKNW’s Christy Clark featured a guest who seemed a strange choice. It was a Fraser Institute automaton, there to talk once more about our “unsustainable medic…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: They won big but it’s still not enough
Forty years ago, American (and, by logical extension, Canadian) business worried about future survival of free enterprise. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce commissioned Lewis Powell, later a Nixon appointed Supreme Court Judge, to report on the crisis an…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Clemens vs. Clemens
Jason Clemens, who hangs his hat at several right-wing think-tanks (the Fraser, Pacific Research and Macdonald-Laurier Institutes), lauds Canadian fiscal conservatism in today’s Wall Street Journal: Canada’s government, for example, has grown smaller over the last 15 years. Total government spending as a share of the economy peaked at a little over 53% in 1993. […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Trish Hennessy crunches the numbers on vacation time for Canadians:47Percentage of Canadian workers who say they need a vacation more today than they’ve needed in four years. 10Number of statutory holidays Canadian…
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